Nelson Mandela’s Impact on Women

Nelson Mandela said, “Freedom cannot be achieved unless the women have been emancipated from all forms of oppression.” As South Africa’s first democratically-elected president and a revolutionary activist, Mandela is famous for his fight for racial equality. He’s less known for his impact on women’s rights.

Mandela championed equal rights for women worldwide, saying, “As long as women are bound by poverty and as long as they are looked down upon, human rights will lack substance.” He made changes that improved women’s representation in government, bettered female healthcare, and upheld reproductive rights. Find out how he changed South Africa, setting a precedent for the rest of the world.

During apartheid, women only represented 2.7 percent of South Africa’s parliament. After the first democratic elections of 1994, that number jumped tenfold to 27 percent when Mandela made his cabinet over 30 percent women, including Dr Frene Ginwala as Speaker of the House. Today, women make up 44 percent of the country’s politicians.

Mandela in his first public appearance after his release from prison with his wife of the time, Winnie Mandela.

Mandela made prenatal and postnatal care for mothers free under South Africa’s public health system during his presidency. He also mandated health care for children up to the age of six.

A woman knits a blanket in Nelson Mandela Square as part of the 67 blankets that were knitted for Nelson Mandela day in Johannesburg, South Africa this Friday. The blankets will be handed out to those in need.

On August 9, 1956, 20,000 women marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria on August 9, 1956 to protest apartheid legislation that would require black women to carry passes in urban areas. 40 years after the women’s protest, Mandela declared August 9th Woman’s Day to honor them. “This is in celebration of the struggles of the women over the decades and a rejuvenation of our commitment to strive for a society free of discrimination, more importantly discrimination against women.”

Oprah and the Mandelas, on Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday.

Section 9 of the Bill of Rights in Mandela’s Constitution of 1996 decreed citizens’ right to equality before the law and freedom from discrimination. As Ilyse Hogue at The Nation pointed out, “it listed not only race as impermissible grounds for discrimination, but ‘gender,’ and then ‘sex’ and then, uniquely, it also added ‘pregnancy.’” It gave women the right to make decisions concerning reproduction. Ilyse continued, “This official recognition that gender equality requires embracing reproductive freedom remains a high-water mark of international law.”

Nelson Mandela’s Impact on Women

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During apartheid, women only represented 2.7 percent of South Africa’s parliament. After the first democratic elections of 1994, that number jumped tenfold to 27 percent when Mandela made his cabinet over 30 percent women, including Dr Frene Ginwala as Speaker of the House. Today, women make up 44 percent of the country’s politicians.

Mandela in his first public appearance after his release from prison with his wife of the time, Winnie Mandela.

Mandela made prenatal and postnatal care for mothers free under South Africa’s public health system during his presidency. He also mandated health care for children up to the age of six.

A woman knits a blanket in Nelson Mandela Square as part of the 67 blankets that were knitted for Nelson Mandela day in Johannesburg, South Africa this Friday. The blankets will be handed out to those in need.

On August 9, 1956, 20,000 women marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria on August 9, 1956 to protest apartheid legislation that would require black women to carry passes in urban areas. 40 years after the women’s protest, Mandela declared August 9th Woman’s Day to honor them. “This is in celebration of the struggles of the women over the decades and a rejuvenation of our commitment to strive for a society free of discrimination, more importantly discrimination against women.”

Oprah and the Mandelas, on Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday.

Section 9 of the Bill of Rights in Mandela’s Constitution of 1996 decreed citizens’ right to equality before the law and freedom from discrimination. As Ilyse Hogue at The Nation pointed out, “it listed not only race as impermissible grounds for discrimination, but ‘gender,’ and then ‘sex’ and then, uniquely, it also added ‘pregnancy.’” It gave women the right to make decisions concerning reproduction. Ilyse continued, “This official recognition that gender equality requires embracing reproductive freedom remains a high-water mark of international law.”